Not all recruiters are created equal. When your company is looking for help to fill a difficult role, you may be considering using the services of a recruitment agency. You’ll need to take care, however, to find the best recruitment agency to fit your company’s needs. From transparency to industry expertise, here’s what to look for when selecting a recruitment agency.

1. Industry Expertise

While it’s not necessary to hire a recruitment agency with a “Finance only” or “IT only” value proposition, you will want to look for a company with employees who specialize in each sector. This industry expertise will make your chosen recruiter than much more effective since they will have existing contacts in each industry. Further, this will save time since they won’t contact candidates who don’t fit what you’re looking for.

2. Past Success

A good recruitment agency should be proud of their past clients and past achievements. Showing exceptional results is not easy in the realm of professional recruitment. If your recruitment agency has public case studies with recommendations and testimonials, these provide more credibility than an agency with nothing to show for its work. Find a recruitment agency whose past success mirrors your current needs.

3. Reputation

Your chosen recruitment agency should be well-known for providing excellent service, especially in their target industry (if they have one). An indicator of a stellar reputation is the recruitment agency’s employee retention rate. This statistic, showing how long recruited employees stay in their new positions, is how a good recruitment agency both shows and tells.

4. Transparency

A good recruitment agency will not hide their processes from you, the client. Nor will they hide their contacted candidates or recruitment progress. As the client, you have full rights to know what is happening throughout the recruiting process. You might want to keep track of how many hours have been spent, how many candidates have been pre-screened, or where your job ads are posted. No matter what, you should have access to this and any other information, whenever and however you request it.

5. Builds Long Lasting Relationships

Recruiters work in the “people business.” As such, they deal with a wide variety of people on a daily basis. Your chosen recruitment agency should have strong relationship building skills, knowing how to use every opportunity to network and transform this into business results. Building relationships with everyone involved in the recruitment process is essential. A recruitment agency that is able to build relationships will be able to build trust and attract new job seekers more easily.

Nowadays, recruitment agencies are an essential part of any job search. For job seekers and employers alike, a good recruitment agency can make the hiring process that much easier. Finding a good recruitment agency, however, might not be so easy. When you know what to look for you can rest assured your recruitment needs are being taken care of. Industry expertise, reputation, relationship building, transparency, and past success are all markers of a good recruitment agency.